I still have a guide!! 4th day in North Vietnam

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Well. Signing back in and so very happy to report that it has been a great day! All my fears and tensions from yesterday have been taken care of. I did have a bit of a scare his morning. Van, the English teacher that went to dinner with us showed up this morning at 7 am sharp. Fortunately, the government radio was blasting its wake up call outside my window since 6 am. I so hate oversleeping on a Sunday and nothing beats waking up to the soothing romantic sound of the Vietnamese language. Van, wanted to take us to breakfast. Ok. lets get the guide and take him too. We knock on his door and no answer. Of course my first thought was that he had taken off like I feared. But when we went downstairs he was down working on the bike.

On a side note, its interesting that the town I am in is famous for its gemstones and gemstone paintings. Apparently rubies are the big thing and there are mines everywhere. In the lobby of the hotel that I stayed at, about 20 young Vietnamese women were creating these pictures that are made up of just gemstones. When you stand back they look like pretty dingy paintings, but when you get close you realize that its all rocks. The reason that the paintings look sort of dingy is that most of the stones are not really bright. But I do admit that it appears to take some talent and some incredible detail to make these things. It was very unique to see them as it was my first ones that I had ever seen, but really not my style. If you have any desire to get dogs playing poker or matador fighting bull made out of just gemstones then Loy Keyen is definitely your town.

At breakfast with Van's help, my guide was able to express that he was not upset with me and that he had no intention of leaving me. He was upset with his boss and for the rest of the trip, the guide stated that he would make sure to get me to the towns with hotels. So that started off the day well. Also, he was in a much better mood. I feel so much better myself. Yesterday with what was going on I was as nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

The next really nice thing was that it had rained during the evening and was still very overcast and very softly drizzling. Not enough to really get you wet but the combination of the 2 made for an amazing morning temperature wise. A perfect day for a ride. Yesterday I basically fried my face and arms pretty good. Its nice to have a break from that sun a bit. The next really nice thing is that we continued out of town but on some back roads and the trip today will be mostly through countryside and away from the main road. Its definitely slower going on the country roads but so much more enjoyable. You pass so many houses and villages where the people are only feet away from you.

Another side note. Its been 4 days and still not one sighting of a Westerner. I really do wonder how many tourists have made this loop? And the reaction of almost everyone is so funny. its not like I come through these places in stealth mode or anything. I come down the road on my super loud chainsaw motorbike with blue white smoke coming out behind me. So when people hear the bike they look up and then its funny to watch their faces as they see Westerner! Every one of them smiles and then waves. Then almost every one of them shouts "hello"! I of course have to say hello back and try to wave. It feels like I have said hello thousands of times by the end of the day. Back home in America we take for granted the diversity we have in the people around us. Here, its not that way. People here only see other Vietnamese for the most part.

Also back home at 6' 2" tall, I am slightly average then normal. Most days though I am used to having many people around me or passing me that are taller than me. Here in Vietnam, I am a giant. I am sure somewhere in the country there are some Vietnamese that are taller that I am but I have not seen one yet. They like to come up next to me and measure themselves against me. Its so funny.

Talking to Van was an eye opener. She is 25 and has never been more than 100 miles away from this area. She went to Hanoi once 10 years ago. She has broken English yet is an English teacher. She is smart and pretty but has no concept of life out of this area other then some TV. Travel for her is not possible as they really don’t get time off like we do and even if they had the time they could not afford to go anywhere. When I meet these people I so wish I could buy them a plane ticket and treat them to a tour of someplace different.

The other thing too that I so respect in them is that none of their happiness is from what they have or from material things. On the way out of town we were able to visit Van's house. It was so simple. Because it is small her bed is in the living room so she has no room of her own. She's 25 a teacher and does not even have her own room. It was kind of embarrassing when she looked at my luggage and said "so heavy" "Why so much?" I was thinking in the back of my head, "so much?" This was like the bare minimum I could figure out to bring. It made me realize that I probably had more clothes in my little suitcase then she has totally. However, she seems very happy with her family and friends. When we talk about simplifying our life, I don’t think we truly understand to the extent that we can reduce our wants and what we think are our needs. It is a lesson that I really hope I take with me from this land.

We have left the mountains for the most part but I never tire of the countryside filled with luminescent green rice paddies. We are also surrounded by these limestone formations covered in green foliage. Also, giant palm trees have begun to appear. This has translated into a change of architecture as well. Most of the houses are raised on stilts and the roofs are covered in palm fronds. It has a very south pacific sort of feel to it.

I do have to give my guide credit for effort though. Late afternoon, at about 2pm we pull into a small dirt road and drive to a stilt house. We get there and a couple of nice guys come out to meet us and we pull up chairs to a table. They pour tea and we sit for awhile. One of the guys speaks English of a sort. He states that if I want to take a boat ride with the bikes to Yen Bai it would only take about 3 hours and I could relax. I look at my guide and ask how many more Km to Yen Bai? He states 70km. I was taken aback. I asked how long would that take? He stated about 3 hours. I was tired and hot and was thinking that it would be close to 6pm by the time we got to town. I asked how much for the boat ride? He said 400,000 vnd. A little high for me. The guy then asked that if I was tired would I want to stay with them there? Light Bulb! In my head I thought: This is one of the places they want me to stay at! I then made a decision to call their bluff. I looked at the guide and said. Well, if we have 3 hours of riding ahead of us we should head out now. You could tell that all 3 of them thought I was going to do something different. All my thoughts were confirmed however when after about 15 min of riding on the country road we hit a main 2 lane road with a sign that stated Yen Bai 40km. I was in the front ahead of my guide and was laughing to myself. Suddenly the 3 hour ride to Yen Bai was know only going to take about 50 min.

So here I am now in Yen Bai. I am in a very old kind of dirty hotel but it has TV with Iron Man playing on HBO and most importantly has A/C going. Tomorrow we continue the journey and the adventure.

Signing off for now

Dave

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Comments

[Janice]

Valuable lessons
Dave, what you are seeing and taking away from this is invaluable in our service to Jehovah. It really shows the difference between a need and a want. I wish we all could have this experience. Man, we are so distracted by everything here in America. I feel thats one of our biggest traps of Satan. We have so many superfulous things clouding our hearts and minds keeping us from the one basic thing, our love for Jehovah. You are very fortunate to have this illustrated so well. Be safe!